Shrinking – your meal gets a bite

Portions get smaller with the new trend – ‘shrinking‘. Meals get bites – soup is served in little glasses, mini hamburgers, mini desserts, mini rolls – everything gets mini and is served on a big plate or board. This makes eating more fun, and food easy to share.

Eating bites instead of 1 big portion may take more time to prepare, but it also has its advantages. Thanks to the diversity of ingredients, your food is richer in vitamins and minerals and according to researchers, better for your waistline. It is also more enjoyable, and an easy way to make children eat veggies.

A study from Arizona State University shows, that eating food into smaller pieces may boost our satiety more than eating one large portion of food with the same number of calories.

Eating delicious food in smaller portions leaves us more satisfied with the taste. Scientists have also confirmed, that each bite is less pleasant than the previous one. In a study from Boston University School of Management and Stanford University Graduate School of Business researchers investigated the enjoyment of food. 134 undergraduate students were asked to choose out of 3 flavors of Nut Thin crackers and then they were given to eat different amounts of the crackers they chose.

One group were given 15 crackers and another – only 3 crackers. After they ate the crackers students were asked to rate how much they enjoyed each cracker. Results show, that students who ate 3 crackers enjoyed each one significantly more, than those who were given a bigger portion of 15 crackers. However a second research revealed another important aspect – the more we enjoy certain food, the sooner we want to eat it again.

Researchers from the Netherlands showed in a study, that when eating in smaller bites you eat less. 53 people participating in this study were given soup. They consumed it in small, large and free sips in distracted and focused state. The results showed, that the soup intake in small sips was around 30% less than in both large and free sips.

People eat more, while they are distracted. And most of the time we are distracted, while we eat. But if you reduce your meal size into bites, this may counteract this tendency. Taking smaller bites helps people eat less and leads to faster satiation.

You can use your imagination to prepare little bites or check these more than 70 recipes, I have selected below: